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Post tags: avocado, beauty products, cucumber, DIY, eczema, face care, face mask, honey, organic beauty, rosacea, Skin, skin care, yogurt

Few people turn to a tree branch or corn husk for a meal, and for good reason. The cellulose found in the cell walls of plants is enormously difficult for the human digestive system to break down. The carbohydrate is one of the most abundant organic materials in the world, and thanks to new research it could serve as a potential food source for a global population estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050. Researchers from Virginia Tech recently found a way to convert cellulose into amylose through a bioprocess called “simultaneous enzymatic biotransformation and microbial fermentation”. They published their findings this week in the early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Post tags: amylose, carbohydrate, cascading enzymes, cellulose, chun you, corn stover, edible packaging, ETHANOL, food, hongge chen, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, starch, virginia tech, Y.H. Percival Zhang

Scientists just discovered a key ingredient that could help propel the production of biofuel: horse poop. Converting corn stalks and grass to biofuel requires removing lignin and breaking down cellulose, which is a complicated and expensive process. But thanks to an enzyme that lives in fungi in horse manure, scientists were able to drastically reduce costs, inching biofuel closer to becoming a viable and cost-effective energy source.

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Post tags: alternative energy, biofuels, commercial production of biofuels, eco design, green design, horse manure fuel, horse poop biofuel, Poo Power!, sustainable design

In a breakthrough that could be a game-changer for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, researchers at Virginia Tech have discovered a way to extract large amounts of hydrogen from any plant. Current methods of producing hydrogen are expensive and they generate greenhouse gases. If this new method of hydrogen extraction proves to be as successful as initial findings suggest, the process could be commercialized and widely adopted within three years.

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Post tags: clean tech, fuel cell, fuel cell car, fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen, hydrogen extraction, hydrogen fuel cell, renewable energy, virginia tech, Y.H. Percival Zhang

Sprouts and edible grasses are very rich in nutrients, but anyone who has ended up with mush instead of tasty green knows that growing them at home can be tedious. Fresh wheatgrass, micro-greens, and sprouts are amazing foods, because they have a high concentration of proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, bio-flavonoids, t-cells and other nutrients. The Freshlife sprouter makes it easy to grow them indoors with automatic hydroponic watering and a stacking tier system that let you fit more into a small space.

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Post tags: Eco, freshlife sprouter, green, indoor gardening, Sustainable, urban gardening

In the hunt to replace petroleum, scientists are looking for more efficient ways to produce biofuels from organisms. A team of researchers at MIT have engineered yeast to manufacture the heavy alcohol isobutanol. Yeast normally creates isobutanol in small amounts, and by altering the cell so that the production takes place entirely in the mitochondria, the scientists were able to boost the amount of the chemical by 260 percent. The results of their work were published in the February 17 online edition of Nature Biotechnology.

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Post tags: 2-methyl-1-butanol, biofuel, biosynthetic, cytoplasm, ETHANOL, gregory stephanopoulos, isobutanol, isopentanol, jose avalos, MIT, mitchondria, nature biotechnology, petroleum, yeast

The quick rise and depressing downward spiral of the ethanol industry proved that using food to make biofuel is both wasteful and costly. Non food-based biofuels, such as those derived from grasses, trees, or algae, are far more sustainable but harder to produce. In order to access the sugars in plant biomass that will eventually become fuel, scientists must find a way to break down lignin, a polymer that forms the thick, woody cell walls of most plants and trees. Now researchers at Brown University have identified a type of bacteria that loves to digest lignin, and it might be able to act as a tiny biorefinery for sustainable fuel production.

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Post tags: algae, alternative fuels, bacteria, biofuels, brown university, cellulose, ETHANOL, grasses, lignin, microbes

A team of engineers from MIT has created genetic circuits in bacterial cells that can not only perform logic functions, but also remember the results. These functions can then be encoded within the cell’s DNA and can be passed on in other cells for dozens of generations. The research, which was outlined in the Feb. 10 online edition of Nature Biotechnology, states that this breakthrough could allow for more efficient controls in biomanufacturing, as well as the programming of stem cells into other cell types.

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Post tags: bacterial cells, biodiesel, biofuels, Biological engineering, Boolean logic, Circuits, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (eecs), genetic circuits, Logic gate, MIT, stem cells, Synthetic biology

Read the rest of 6 Natural Hangover Remedies to Cure What Ails Ya on New Year’s Day

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Post tags: 6 Natural Remedies to Cure Your New Year's Day Hangover, banana hangover cure, coconut water hangover cure, hangover, hangover cure, hangover remedy, how do i cure a hangover, natural hangover remedy, new year's day, New Year's Eve

Read the rest of DIY: A Simple Guide to Beer Brewing for Seasonal Ale Lovers

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Post tags: ale, beer, beer advocate, beersmith, belgian, boil, bottling, brew, brewing beer, brewmaster, carbon dioxide, cerveza, CO2, collaborative consumption, consume less, DIY, do it yourself, grains, green business, green design, green infrastructure, homebrew, homebrewing, homemade, hops, how-to, local, localize, molasses, obama, pilsner, porter, seasonal, sharing, sparge, spiced, stout, suds, water issues, wort

A team of scientists from Syracuse University are using nanotechnology to harness the natural bioluminescence of fireflies in order to create lighting that doesn’t need any energy to glow! By using nanotechnology, the team believe that they can create a natural bioluminescent lighting system that is 20 to 30 times more efficient than any previously made.

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Post tags: bioluminescence, bioluminescence lighting, energy free lighting, firefly light, nanotechnology, syracuse university

E. chromi is an experimental collaboration between designers and scientists working in the field of synthetic biology. Royal College of Art graduates’ James King and Daisy Ginsberg, together with University of Cambridge’s iGEM 2009 Biology team, are developing a cheap, personalized disease monitoring system that works from the inside out. By color-coding diseases and giving a patient an E. Coli bacteria-engineered drink — much like a probiotic shake — sick patients could soon find out what ails them by simply checking the color of their poop!

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Post tags: cientific design, colored poo, Design for Health, designer bacteria, e. chromi, illness, poo, Poo Power!, Royal College of Art, University of Cambridge's iGEM

It seems that renewable energy now grows on trees, as electronics giant Sony just announced that it has developed a battery powered by paper. Before you start thinking you can charge your iPhone with a standard piece of A4, it’s a bit more technical than that – Sony’s battery uses enzymes to break down the glucose stored within the cellulose of the wood pulp fibres that make up your average sheet of paper. Hey, it’s a start!

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Post tags: bio battery, sony bio battery, sony enzyme cellulose battery, sony paper battery, sony paper battery fan demonstration, sony paper battery japan, sony paper enzyme paper breakdown, sony soda battery, sony toyko paper battery

Giant Pandas are well-loved for their distinctive appearance and sedentary nature. Now they will receive even greater adoration and attention for their bowel-based contribution to the development of a clean energy future. In a national meeting at the American Chemical Society, researchers presented a study identifying panda poop as a source of enzyme-producing bacteria that breaks down plant materials in a way that is useful for biofuel production.

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Post tags: agriculture, Alternative Fuel, american chemistry society, Biodiversity, biofuel production, biofuels, biomass, biomass conversion, carbon dioxide, cellulosic biomass, cheap fuel, cheaper fuel, Climate Change, CO2, deforestation, department of agriculture, Department of Energy, doa, DOE, eco design, eco habitat, eco-conscious, eco-friendly, emissions, emissions reduction, Environment, environmental design, enzymes, giant panda, green design, green infrastructure, green investment, green living, green technology, green transportation, infrastructure, memphis zoo, obama, panda, panda poop, poop, reduce, science, sustainable design, sustainable living, waste management

Researchers working with the US Department of Energy recently isolated a salt-tolerant enzyme from the Great Salt Lake that they say is the missing piece in the biofuel refining process. The team of researchers has been working with ionic liquids, which are liquid forms of salt, to effectively break down the lignin in non-food derived biofuel — or lignocellulosic biomass — which is generally made up of agriculture waste, corn husks, sugar cane, pine needles, and other inedible plant matter. Until now, ionic liquids have been efficient at breaking down lignin in the plant matter but they were unable to unlock the sugars needed to produce biofuel – this new Great Salt Lake enzyme may well serve as the missing piece in the puzzle.

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Post tags: "sustainable energy", biofuel, biofuel enzyme, biofuel production, great salt lake, great salt lake bacteria, great salt lake biofuel, great salt lake enzyme, green energy, green power, green transportation, lignocellulosic biomass, non food derived biofuel, sustainable power, sustainable transportation

In an effort to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, the U.S. has been working to ramp up its plant-based ethanol production in recent years, and while we’re falling short of Congress’s 500 million gallon goal for 2012, things are on the up and up. Just this week, the Department of Energy announced a $105 million loan guarantee to build a plant in Iowa that will produce up to 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol each year. The plant, being constructed by POET, will be the first commercial-scale of its type, and would work with local farmers to process more than 700 million tons of non-food corn waste into fuel.

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Post tags: biofuels, biomass, corn ethanol plant iowa, corn waste ethanol plant, corn waste turned into ethanol, ETHANOL, ethanol fuel from corn waste, ethanol plant, fuel from corn waste, green guel, iowa ethanol plant, Recycled Materials, sustainable fuel, us deparment of energy

One of the major obstacles of biofuel production today is that the actual process of turning a plant into a usable energy source is time consuming and costly. Well, scientists at the US Department of Agriculture think they have a key that would unlock the door to a future of quick and easy production of fuels from plants and it comes from within a cow stomach — but don’t worry, no cows are harmed in the process! They’ve studied the enzymes in cows’ rumens (the first compartments of their stomachs) and have discovered a substance that is unusually good at breaking down the complex walls of plants. Makes sense right? If cows eat loads of fiber all day long, they must have a special secret to digesting it so why not use nature’s answer instead of looking for our own?

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Post tags: advances in bio diesel, advances in bio fuel, bio diesel, biofuel, cow stomach, digestion, efficient bio diesel production, efficient biofuel production, how to make bio diesel, how to make biofuel

Biofuel startup Joule Unlimited has announced that it has engineered microbes that require only sunlight and CO2 to produce ethanol, diesel, or other hydrocarbons. The company formally announced that it has obtained a patent for a genetically modified version of cyanobacteria that converts carbon dioxide, dirty water and sunlight into a liquid hydrocarbon that is functionally equivalent to regular diesel.

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Post tags: bacteria CO2 sunlight fuel, bacteria renewable energy fuel, cyanobacteria, Joule Biotechnologies, microbes bacteria CO2 sunlight fuel, microbes renewable energy fuel

One of the greater issues associated with biofuel is that the sheer amount of grain required to create it could potentially feed millions of people. In fact, when the ‘Biofuel Revolution’ started under the Bush Administration in 2007, the volume of crops diverted to biofuel production had been said to be impacting  food supplies worldwide. To respond to this issue, researchers at the University of  California have reportedly created a ‘super yeast’ made from a selection of genes from a common fungus, all combined with yeast. The new super yeast is anticipated to become a cost effective alternative to food crops (such as grain and soy) in the creation of biofuel, as well as an agent that could reportedly “chew its way through wood and other tough plants.”

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Post tags: biofuel fungus, biofuel fungus yeast, biofuel super yeast, biofuel yeast, bioful neurospora crassa, frankenstein yeast, u cal biofuel, university california biofuel

Typical of industrial construction, precious metals such as gold, platinum and palladium are sometimes lost given the difficulties of effectively extracting them. However, researchers from the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham have found a way to use microbes, similar to the common soil bacterium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans, to recover palladium from useless industrial waste. Researchers hope that by using such forms of bacteria, high quantities of precious metals can be recaptured and recycled for use in industries. While the whole process to reclaim this little bit of metal seems overly tedious, the end result holds considerable value. Palladium itself is one of the most precious resource metals on Earth, boasting unique chemical properties. This metal can in fact be used as an active element in autocatalytic converters able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.


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Post tags: bacteria green catalyst, bioscience bacteria palladium, bioscience bacteria precious m etal, gold bacteria, palladium bacteria, palladium microbes, precious metals bacteria